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tv   The Daily Rundown  MSNBC  March 8, 2013 6:00am-7:00am PST

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anan a -- >> i would pay to not have dinner with bill karins. >> it's been mika's life-time dream to be a tapper. >> i've tried all my life. >> mike barnicle finally showed up. seriously, what is wrong with you? >> i slept. >> that's just your opinion. >> i think i'm going to just put on a hawaiian shirt like harry truman and move to key west. >> on the one hand, we have a number of tv viewers. >> i can dunk as well, the munchkins right into the coffee. this is going to amount to castration. i've never been castration but it sounds like a good thing. >> i learned that brian's middle name is eunuch. >> oh. >> i think the initiation's
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gone. >> mind meld. >> mind meld. >> how you doing this morning? >> good. >> you're back on the roids, aren't you? >> i kind of am. >> got to give the steroids a break. >> let's start in washington with michael steel. >> the fourth sign of the apocalypse, eugene robinson's article, rand paul was right. >> show as 1,001 fans on twitter. >> i learned to honey boo-boo tripled her salary. >> the corollary to michael steel's thing is that pigs can indeed fly. >> speaking of bigs flying, mark harmon, god bless him, $38 million a year. >> got to love harmon. see you back here on monday. if it's way too early --
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>> it's "morning joe." but stay tuned for a very special edition of "the daily rundown" with chuck todd. >> breaking news this morning, the new jobs report shows employers added 236,000 jobs in february and unemployment dropping down from john. we'll get reaction from both sides on capitol hill as well as the first reaction from the white house. also this morning as leader pelosi gets ready to get rid of the defense of marriage act, bill clinton. plus jarring jacks around a book hook, a slew of sights and sounds this week, along with the 2016 road to 1600. >> good morning from samaitan inns. it's friday, march 8th, 2013, and this is "the daily rundown."
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now here's chuck todd. >> good morning. i'm luke russert in for chuck todd, but thanks for sending in that greeting. a great group here in d.c. that helps the homeless and is near and dear to chuck's heart. let's get right to the big job news. 236,000 jobs were added in february. the unemployment rate fell to 7.7% down from 7.9% in january. the number for december was revised up to 219,000. the number for january was revised down to 119,000. the sectors that showed the biggest movement, professional and business employment increased by 73,000 jobs. construction increased by 48,000, healthcare up by 32,000, and retail added 24,000 jobs.
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the most significant losses were in government, mostly on the state level, where 10,000 jobs were cut. much more on the job news in a moment with cnbc's becky quick, by let's turn to the budget battle. the president will continue his battle as the house and senate prepare dueling budgets. >> i thought it was a really good exchange of views, a very informal setting, coats off, sleeves rolled up, really discussing ways we might begin to bridge some 69 differences we face. >> i don't feel like the president's going around me. i frankly think it's a somewhat hopeful sign. >> nbc's capitol hill correspondent in the pride of cleveland, ohio, kelly o'donnell
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joins us. kelly, how are you? >> i'm great. good to see you. >> so, kelly, this now-found sense of optimism between president obama and congressional republicans, he dined with paul ryan yesterday, had that dinner, will meet with both caucuses next week, there seemed to be this idea that before the debt limit there just might be enough time to get the grand bargain through a regular budget process. >> luke, it's almost as if there's harp music playing and quiet dinner music in the halls here. the mood seems changed. now maybe some of the rancor will find its way back, but for at least this moment in time, led in part by the president reaching out, sitting down with republicans. republicans then talking about it in positive terms. we heard democrat chris van holland describing the informal setting there. can it be? can it happen? well, in part what's going on is
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there is a weariness that members of congress have felt. there does seem to be a new window now, especially pastth election. the president's got his second term. part of the problem i've been told by senate republicans part of that dinner the other night is that the president and the people he's been meeting with all acknowledge there is a limited window. it's true for second terms. it's also true in the moment we're living in now, between continuing resolution fights, between debt ceiling. there's a period of a few months here where they believe they can get something done. i've told that the president will urge his emb, the department of office and management and budget to try to give some of the lawmakers here some structure to work with, to try to get them to buy in to work on a process, a way that would look a lot more like
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traditional legislating than we've seen over the last few years to try to work through some sort of a budget solution for a longer term. >> and kelly, on wednesday, the eyes of washington and much of the country were fixated on rand paul's epic filibuster. >> still being talked about. >> what that filibuster was about came to fruition yesterday, john brennan confirmed by the senate, although some high profile democrats voting against him. that is now done. >> he will be headed off to longlong -- langley to take over his new job. watching it happen in realtime here, luke, it was sort of a lonely senate floor when rand paul began and as the hours rolled by, there was this building pressure of support for him. and so it was as late as 11, midnight, where you have other republican senators who are not
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those typically rushing to the aid of rand paul who did come to offer their support. so many people are saying he made a constitutional point. he got an answer from the administration with holder giving him a letter talking about the drone program. >> something to keep an eye on. kelly o'donnell, thank you. let's get back to the upbeat jobs report. job gains well over 200,000 in february while the unemployment rate is at a four-year low, leading to a lot of green arrows on wall street. joining me now, becky, what is driving this report internally? >> there are some keys things here that people would say is a good sign. first of all, construction, the construction gains have been lagging. there was an increase of 48,000 construction jobs in february, and if you look at it, in
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september construction employment as risen by 151,000. another good thing is the healthcare industry. it continued to add jobs in february at a gain of 32,000. that's good news too. we know that healthcare has been something sticking in there. employment continued to trend up in the retail trade where there was an increase of 24,000. and if you start to dig down in the numbers beneath that there are some good signs as well. that's a key number because as that number starts to tick higher, that's a precursor of when you will really see other companies start to add additional workers because what they do first is try to squeeze more out of the workers they already have, offer them overtime, and when they can't squeeze out more, they start adding more jobs. so this number, the lowest we've seen since december of 2008. and wall street, this came as a bit of a surprise, we were only looking for a gain of 160,000.
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and that's why the futures indicate it's sharply higher. right now looks like we're going to open at about 90 points higher. you saw the dow closing as a record level every day this week. >> and becky, could this be the high water mark before the sequester really kicks in? could this be the last jobs number before the sequester? >> maybe yes, maybe not. what really came in here, the private sector alone added 246,000. it was the government that brought it down to 236,000. people who are furloughed aren't losing their jobs. it will the hours they worked will come down. >> cnbc's becky quick, thanks so much for joining us. now it's time for our weekly roundup of 2016 moves. believe it or not negative ads are already airing in iowa.
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>> sometime soon, virginia governmental bob mcdonnell may be in iowa to test the waters for 2016. don't be fooled. as a candidate, he promised he would never raise taxes, but as governor he pushed the largest tax increase in virginia in history. >> tea party pay trtriot group backing that. mcdonnell is the not headed to iowa yet, but several republicans have made it clear this week they're positioning themselves for a presidential run down the road. former florida jeb bush used his book to plant his flag in the field. >> you're being more open about considering national office than ever before. >> i'm not saying yes, i'm not saying no. >> what's different?
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>> i've accomplished some things in my life that allow me to have that kind of discretion to be able to think about it. >> senator rand paul's filibuster stole the show, however, winning praise from an odd coalition of conservatives, many of whom don't even support what he's trying to do. >> a man who is, i believe, going to be the logical choice for president of the united states -- >> this is a terrific performance of leadership, of courage, of stamina, determination. >> the e-mails came flying in. twitter was going nuts. >> this was to me a seminal event last night that could change the direction that we are all heading. >> paul agreed in an interview with politico this is an important moment for him. >> how seriously are you looking at 2016? >> we're looking at it very seriously. i think our party needs something new, fresh, and different. >> democrats were also making
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moves this week as well as vice president biden who was pitching himself to a different constituency nearly every day, it seemed, marching it selma on sunday, speaking to aipac on monday, declaring victory on the violence against women's act, a bill he originally authored when he was in the senate, with women behind him on thursday. meanwhile, maryland governor martin o'malley will give a keynote speech this morning in south carolina. unfortunately for o'malley, just 7% of democrats in his own state put him at the top of their 2016 list compared to the whopping 16% that choose hillary clinton. clinton showed in a quinnipiac poll this week why she can clear the field. governor chris christie is the only governor -- tops paul ryan 50 to 38 and leads marco rubio
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50-34. nbc's senior editor mark murray is here. he's the guy that has the coalition already built there that he can inherit from his father. a lot of folks, and you and i have had this conversation before, rand paul had a lot of energy behind him. rand paul seems to be a much better face, much better spoken and has a ton of energy about him. >> you end up looking at rand paul, he did create a splash this week with what he did on that filibuster, luke. and it was amazing to me, not only the splash that he got among conservative pundits, the rush limbaughs, but also the backlash he got from john mccain and lindsey graham, who said this isn't the type of position on national security our party
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should be taking. >> on the democratic side, we saw joe biden's schedule. seems to touch on all the groups you would need to touch on to come through a democratic primary. but this far out, we're in march of 2013, it seems to me that it's hillary, and that decision, and that's it. from the aides i've talked to, if she wants it, it's hers. no one can challenge her at this point. there's no barack obama coming around. >> that's why we'll probably not get an answer from her for a couple of years, which is why all the activity that we're seeing is happening on the republican side. not only was rand paul making waves, jeb bush. we saw marco rubio taking center stage giving his state of the union response to president obama. all these republicans seem to be doing little different things to at least dip their toes in the 2016 waters to prepare themself for something still three years
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away. >> the pressure on hillary is unbelievable. lastly, carl levin retiring. this adds the senate's retirement hearten, mike joha s johanns. he's not terribly popular right now. not good news for democrats in this seat. >> they have to play defense. republicans haven't done well in presidential contests or senate contests in quite a while a while in michigan, but a retirement does create an open seat. some of the names on the democrat side, democrats seem to like congressman gary peters, and then on the republican side one name that's popped up is congressman mike rogers. >> as well as dave camp. he only has two more years as chairman of the ways and means committee. still ahead, we'll get the obama administration's take on the new unemployment report, plus changing times with president clinton now calling on the
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supreme court to overturn the defense of marriage act. "the daily rundown" meet the new members continues with mark takanau. he's one of six gay members in the house. you're watching "the daily rundown" only on ms. busy friday here in d.c. zach brown, take us out! this is $100,000.
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since the start of the year, "the daily rundown" has been introducing you to the newest members of congress. in today's edition, it's a lesson of if at first you don't succeed, try, try again.
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mark takano first ran for congress in 1992. he ended up losing in one of the closest congressional races in california history. he lost again in 1994 in a nasty rematch. 18 years later, takano decided to run one more time in a newly drawn district, going on to become the first openly gay person of congress in color. born and raised in california, takano decided to bypass law school after graduating from harvard to work in inner city schools in boston and california, and he now hopes to take his lessons he learned from his days in the classroom to the house chamber. thank you for being on the program. >> good to be here. >> i want to start off with an issue that is obviously important to you in california, and that's doma. this is what your leader, nancy pelosi had to say about it yesterday. >> i believe that doma is unconstitutional, and i believe that the republicans know it.
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i know it's unconstitutional. >> so where we sit now in march of 2013, how much do you think the likelihood of this being repealed it? >> i think it's very likely. public opinion has moved tremendously, incredibly fast. i think right now it's allowed republicans actually to come out and favor -- there's like 100 republicans who issued a brief endorsing marriage equality before the supreme court. i like to say that common sense has come out of the closet. >> as an openly gay person of color, obviously the first person elected to congress in that capacity, how have you found it working with members on the other side of the aisle. has it come up at all, or do you feel we've come to a point of it's the norm. >> i've only been in congress for 2 1/2 months. i have five other colleagues in
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the house, two others who were elected as openly gay candidates. and i haven't seen any untoward kind of behavior, any kind of antagonism from my republican colleagues. the conversations, you know, working out at the gym, there's all sorts of ways we interact, and i frankly haven't seen any antagonism or animosity. >> i want to turn the attention to something that you're very passionate on and that has to do with entitlement. we're going to put up a quote that you and allen grayson had. we will vote against any and every cut to medicare, medicaid or social security benefits, including raising the retirement age or cutting the cost of living adjustments that our constituents earn and need. now we know that medicare and social security will become
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insolvent. do you think that there's the same type of trend that republicans have towards raising taxes that perhaps you and mr. grayson have towards reforming entitlements in any capacity? >> well, i think of these programs as promises that america has made to our seniors. and i call them sacred promises. people i think want to use other language like entitlements because it would make them easier to cut. i don't think -- i wasn't raised to break promises. people have earned these benefits over a life-time. they deserve them. they're rightfully -- they rightfully take ownership of them, and i'm here in congress to fight for them. >> let's say down the road president obama, through this budget process with congressional republicans, they come to some sort of grand bargain which takes a deep knife to entitlements or benefits, whatever you like to say. do you think there'd be a sizable in exchange for more revenue -- do you think there'd
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be a sizable group of house democrats that would oppose this type of deal? >> well, i can't speculate on some type of hypothetical situation in the future. what i want to do right now is shape this debate, and i want to just remind the president, remind my colleagues that we did make promises to our seniors. the impact to them would be tremendous. people who reach 65, people need medicare. they've banked on it. they've planned for it. social security. this is something that they have earned over a life-time, and for us to change the nature of the agreement we made with them -- actually, more than an agreement -- we made a promise, my belief is that right at this moment, i have to voice and telegraph how i feel to the president. the people of my district i think definitely stand behind me, and i'm representing them
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and i'm being their voice. >> you're from the riverside area of california. obviously there's an air force base around there. as a first-term member of congress, you're in the first months here, what are you hearing from your constituents directly regarding the sequester? are they being vocal or is there just sort of general anxiety? >> i think there's general anxiety. we've talked to some of the base commanders and they've let us know about some of the things and personnel that we cut are furloughed. it's $500 million local impact. we are suffering from 11% unemployment, some of the highest unemployment in the nation. the sequester will have a direct impact on my community already suffering from high unemployment. and my fear is that people are simply not feeling the cuts right now, but the president has been doing i think a tremendous job trying to point to real
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consequences if the sequester goes through. 750,000 jobs nationwide if the sequester is allowed to go through. >> mark takano from california, thanks for joining us. you're looking at live pictures of the vatican, and 115 cardinal electors are expected to vote this afternoon. according to a vatican spokesman, the conclave is expected to begin monday, tuesday, or wednesday. watch out for the cardinal from d.c. up next, what'sth big deal? congresswoman marsha blackman joins us. is a capital compromise in the works. today's trivia, who wasth first president born west of the mississippi. the first person to tweet at "the daily rundown" will get a shoutout. the answer coming up on "the daily rundown." i'll give you a hint. think vacuums. zap technology.
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after a week of wining and dining republicans, it seems president obama's two-year push for a grand bargain is back in play, and there also seems to be a growing willingness in members on both sides to find a deal. but the president wants more resin and republicans want entitlement reforms, so where's the common ground? joining me, republican representative from tennessee, marsha blackburn. thanks for being on the program. >> good to be with you. thank you. >> the first thing i'd like to ask you, the economy grew by 236,000 jobs there's quarter. president obama deserves some credit for that one? >> well, i think that there is credit to go around and also, luke, i have to tell you, talking to so many business owners here in tennessee, they were pleased to see that we stuck to the point of letting the sequester take place and beginning to cut across the
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board, make some cuts in this discretionary spending. what people want is certainty from washington and economic. they want to see a growth agenda. they want to see tax reform. they felt like last week was a big step in the right direction. they think that getting a budget passed is going to be another step. and for the first time they feel hopeful that actually congress will get a budget passed. the house has done it. the senate hasn't taken it up. that's why we passed no budget, no pay last month. >> let's talk about that because there does seem to be a chance for some type of bargain. we're not up against a crazy deadline like the last few years. so i want to ask you, as we've seen sort of 2 to 1 spending cuts to resin since 2011 when the republicans took over the house, what number would it be comfortable for you to entitlement cuts to resin? would you accept any type of new resin with sizable entitlement
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cuts? does to have to be 2 to 1 cuts? >> well, actually instead of saying a two to one or three to one or four to one, i think what we are looking at in the house is how do you get a budget to the point that it balances within 10 years? and within that component, of course you've got to look at the tax reforms and closing some of these loopholes. we know that's going to generate resin. we also know that if you lower federal spending and if you insert some accountabilities and start to focus on outcomes, that history tells us, you reduce that federal spending, you're going to increase the revenues. you reduce your rates, you're going to see federal revenues escalate. so i think rather than saying we have to have this to this, what we need to look at is how do we get a growth agenda, how do we
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get a budget that comes into balance that is responsible, that is focused on putting us on that path to prosperity. the american people have grown so weary of seeing this uncertainty coming from washington. it has stalled jobs growth. and you can't continue to grow the bureauascy. >> i think what you say is you are open to cleaning up the tax code, and because you do that, you know that historically looking at it, you're going to generate more revenue. when you have jobs growth and more people working -- see, our labor force participation rate is auto place to look. it's been at 63.6%. it has moved down. you saw it's a little better.
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it's 63.5% with these numbers. but that labor force participation rate tells you a lot. >> i'd like -- i want to switch to this one other topic here, that's the violence against women act. you were a no vote on the last vote. are you comfortable with the legislation that was signed into law? it had the support of folks like paul ryan in the house. >> yeah, and i have always been in support of the violence against women act and the programs it puts in place. i didn't like this final version that came from the senate. i voted for the house version and against the senate version. it stripped the protections for so many of our nonprofit charities and i'm a pro-life woman. and i didn't like the language that was there. senator leahy had said sometimes the law gets too broad to be
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effective. i'm focused on protecting our child advocacy centers and those abuse centers. >> congresswoman marsha blackburn, thank you. coming up, unemployment dropped to 7.7%. we'll get reaction from the white house. plus seeing red. divided reaction to rand paul's filibuster. our friday jobs day gaggle will be here. you're watching "the daily rundown" only on msnbc. cold feels nice on sore muscles, huh? you know you could just use bengay zero degrees. medicated pain relief you store in the freezer. brrr...see ya boys. [ male announcer ] bengay zero degrees. freeze and move on.
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developing now, we're just about an hour away from the start of the funeral for venezuelan president hugo chavez who died tuesday after a two-year battle with cancer. you're looking at live pictures of people arriving at that funeral. at least two dozen heads of state are in caracas to pay their respects including castro
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and ahmadinejad. vice president nicholas maduro will be sworn in tomorrow as venezuela's acting president. wall street, following the strong jobs report out this morning, 236,000 jobs were added well above estimates of 160,000 that comes at the tail end of a week that's already seen the dow reach a succession of record highs. don't go anywhere. our gaggle will be here next, plus we'll hear from the white house on those just released job numbers. in a programming note for you on sunday's meet the press a discussion with former and current members of congress, including senators tim kaine and tom coburn and msnbc's own joe scarborough. that's a lot of ideas at one table. and don't forget to spring forward. daylight savings time ends this weekend. first, the white house soup of
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13 republicans join rand paul on the senate floor to filibuster john brennan's nomination as cia director, but not all republicans were happy with the show. senators lindsey graham and john mccain slammed rand paul, calling it an ill-informed stand. >> calm down, senator. mr. holder is right. even if he doesn't explain the law very well, the u.s. government cannot randomly target american citizens on u.s. soil or anywhere else. >> let's bring in our friday gaggle, former republican governor from maryland, and from
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the deputy editor and contributing writer for roll call, nathan gonzalez. governor, you want to go to you off the back, because this was fascinating with rand paul. >> one-day story. >> a fascinating divide, who would have thought that mitch mcconnell would run to the senate floor to bask in the flow of rand paul, and then lindsey graham and john mccain say sit down. what does this mean for 2016. could this libertarian wing -- >> i love the libertarian wing having a role in the party. i think it's very healthy. there may be something personal here. we don't know. this was a little strong by senator mccain. i don't know as far as any personal animosity. but at this point in the cycle, it's no big deal. it's a one-day story. but it's good for the party.
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>> it's almost now a three or four-day story, and it makes me nostalgic for real filibusters that were dramatic, not everyday rote occurrences but it really does show how fractured the republican party is, and when they make a dramatic moment it is over something that the entire country isn't galvanized on. republicans have been obstinate. this is just a real sign of how far to the right the republican party has gone. >> one thing that was of interest to me was the fact that all these guys wanted to get in on this, the mcconnells, saxby chambliss. from the rnc, get on the floor. >> there's the show that was
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going on on the floor but there's all sorts of politics going on northeast it. you have mitch mcconnell, you have marco rubio. he might run for president, a breaking news story. and so you have everyone with these other agendas going on, some of whom we know, some of whom we don't know but it's more complicated. >> everyone covering their bases. hang out for just a second because we have to go to the white house as we do every month at this time. we want to get our first reaction from the white house on the brand new job numbers. joining me now is allen krueger. good morning to you, mr. krueger. >> good morning. so first, i want to get a reaction to the jobs numbers, 236,000, that's obviously positive, but i want to put up what john boehner just released. he said, quote, any job creation is positive news, but the fact is unemployment in america is still way above the levels the obama white house projected when
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the trillion dollar stimulus spending bill was enacted and it has resulted in a debt that exceeds the size of our entire economy. republicans don't seem to be taking this too happily right away. >> no, i think if you step back, you see that the economy's continuing to improve. the recovery's gaining traction. over the last 36 months, we've added private sector jobs. for the last five months we've had over 200,000 jobs added. so this is a sign thought economy is moving in the right direction and we need to avoid self-inflicted wounds. we need to do everything to keep up this progress. >> one thing i find interesting is we obviously see amazing growth on casa, the dow reaching record high levels, but that has not translated into hiring on main street, sort of real increases in profit margins but
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not necessarily bringing new people to the work force. when do you expect to see that divide narrow, where these numbers going down, these massive amounts on wall street going up will actually lead to some real stanley hiring? >> well, we want to build on the progress that we've seen. the longer the recovery keeps going, the more confidence will come back, the more workers will be going back to work. the unemployment rate fell to the lowest it's been since 2008. so we want to build on that progress, and a stronger job market will mean stronger income growths, and that will lead to an upward spiral that will help the recovery going forward. >> one question i want to ask you to get it out of here, i find interesting, there's a lot of optimism for the grand background. house republicans are in the process of doing a budget. president obama's budget has not
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been released yet. it's a little bit late. can you tell us when we'll expect that on capitol hill? >> the president is doing everything he can to get the regular order back in order to make progress. the president has made repeatedly proposals for a balanced approach to get us on a sustainable budget path. he just a week or two ago posted on the web his proposal which outlined closing of tax loopholes so we can replace the sequester, which the longer it stays in place is going to be a drag on the economy. >> allen krueger, we appreciate it. have a good weekend. >> thanks. >> go back to the gaggle here. >> code words, balanced approach. give me a break. another massive tax increase coming from obama. >> where's the tax increase? >> you heard the code words,
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balanced approach. house republicans -- harry reid interested in a budget for the first time in four years? come on. give me a break. >> look, the american people want republicans to come to the table. they support a balanced approach. they support compromise and people working together and right now they're trusting the president more than they trust congress. so if republicans want to improve their deficit in terms of popularity, they need to come to the table. >> we're not buying who struck john over the sequester. >> i'm fascinated that regular order actually could produce something, because we don't have a debt deadline just yet. we're going to get enough rank and file people here to have their say. could that build up a deal? >> we like to be optimistic, but even know deadlines seem to be far away, nothing seems to be done till the last second. both sides, the party bases are
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polarized. >> that's the story that's been amazing to me is some of us wil nothing will change until 2014. only in america. trivia time -- who was the first president born west of the mississippi? the answer -- herbert hoover, someone we've heard a lot about. he was born in iowa. the first 30 presidents were all born east of the mississippi. thanks to james logan for sending in the question. congratulations to today's winner. if you have political trivial question for us, e-mail it to us. we'll be right back. hopefully you're not in colder weather figuratively or literally. max and penny kept our bookstore
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let's bring back our gaggle.
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former governor bob you recallic. margie omero, and nathan gonzalez. kind of an extraordinary week, trying to do something he hasn't done, going directly to the rank and file. legacy in mind? or is this the only way to get something done? >> legacy is probably always on his mind, but yo-yo know that it will work. he showed a willingness to not necessarily have the entire party behind him, but these are almost more photo o period of time s, and might be good for softening the president's image, but functionial and getting something doing? yo-i don't know. still ultimately, if republicans
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want to -- the only entity that was net negative -- that is just getting worse, it hasn't gotten better, they need to country to the table -- >> does an invitation from the president help? >> nobody's buys that, the sequester, so i think this is, hey, maybe i better look more statesman like. plugs are out. >> catholic university partnership with yours truly on clemency. congratulations to all of us. >> check that out. >> a post up at-ton post on the mar and how we shouldn't be fighting each other. >> this afternoon go to rothen berg political report.com, the first 2014 house ratings of the cycle. >> already up. georgetown against syracuse
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this weekend, otto porter bring home the big east. let's go, hoyas! chuck will be back on monday. have a great weekend. coming up next, chris jansing & company, you won't want to miss that. take care. [ kate ] many women may not be absorbing the calcium they take as well as they could because they don't take it with food. switch to citracal maximum plus d. it's the only calcium supplement that can be taken with or without food. my doctor recommends citracal maximum. it's all about absorption.
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